Written communication is currently viewed as an independent task, but the truth is communication itself is almost never the goal. That is to say communication (for communication's sake) is rarely, if ever, the object of the communication, especially in business. Rather, the goal of business, and even work in general, is to produce documentation, calculations, estimations, drawings, data, presentations, and the like. And likewise, the primary purpose for communication is to collect information so that the documentation, calculations, estimations, drawings, data, and presentations may be created. However, communication and work are distinctly different unrelated activities. And, like messaging, knowledge management is an activity largely dissociated from the work being performed.
Under the existing work paradigm, a person will be in the process of performing a task when they realize they need information they do not have. At that point they may access their email program, and write an email message to ask a colleague to supply the missing information. When the response arrives, perhaps a day or two later, the person reads the response. Next they then locate the original file, open it, find the appropriate location within the file and then incorporate the new information. The tasks that comprise “work” are performed in isolation from the subtask of gathering information that makes the work possible. This is inefficient.
The instant invention is an active messaging and knowledge management system built on these observations, the object of which is to provide a variety of means to integrate the objectives of communication with the act of communication.
It is therefore desirable to provide a system with the following advantages: 1) To allow users to save time by allowing the creator of a document to integrate the process of collecting information with the process of incorporating that information in the development of that document. 2) To reduce errors in document creation by (i) reducing the number of steps required to complete the task in which human error would produce a copying-related error. (ii) allowing the respondent to view directly the context of the matter at issue without requiring additional steps on behalf of the questioner (iii) allowing the person with the respondent to directly manipulate the final result, allowing him to instill nuance and subtlety that would otherwise be lost or simply never expressed 3) To provide a collaborative data flow while maintaining full control of the document by its “owner” (author) so that nothing in the document is altered outside the control of the author and 4) To create a documented chain of information flow during the creation of a document. Specifically, to provide a record of which questions were asked, which respondents answered them, which respondents did not answer them, at what time knowledge transfer occurred and with whose knowledge information flowed, and most importantly, who provided the information that ended up in the document, 5) To provides access to unknown information desired by a user in the context of creating a document in a logical, efficient, unified manner and 6) to provide a method for a “to do” list of one's own information gathering objectives to become effective agents, actually completing the tasks, rather than taking notes.